


Into the Darkness

by Neferit



Category: StarCraft
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Relationships, Canon What Canon, Drama, F/M, Non-Canon Relationship, One-sided feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-21
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2017-10-29 22:12:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neferit/pseuds/Neferit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a woman in military forces is not easy; especially if you have to fight every step up the ranks. She has faithful men under her command - but will it be enough in the end?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic appeared in my mind after replaying of all the missions from original StarCraft and StarCraft: Broodwar. I think that Jim Raynor rocks, so I decided to create a female Confederacy Magistrate, Commander Sira Filars, who finds him very attractive – while he is head over heels over Sarah Kerrigan. And since lonely Commander is lonely, I decided to add a commando of her faithful subordinates – mainly her adjutant Max Rand, medic Trent Dallas (nothing against the female medics in game – but when playing games, I always end up with my protagonist being the only woman in the whole group, so I decided to do it here as well), scientist Don Vega, pilot Jack Wesley and trio of marines – Larry ‘T’ Tee, Daryl ‘N’ Nee and Larry ‘G’ Gee. Oh, and also some nameless marines, too. After all, what commander would have such a small unit?

 

“Commander, come to take a look – we are almost at Mar Sara,” sounded the ship communicator. “I think this is something you just have to see yourself!”

  
Sira immediately jumped from her cot, quickly throwing on her clothes. Not that her men didn’t see her naked or semi-naked already – after all, they have been stuck together for years now – but that still didn’t mean she was overly comfortable with showing herself off like that.

  
Mar Sara was on the screen on the bridge. Sira just gazed at the planet wordlessly. So this was the world she was supposed to protect. Part of Mar Sara reminded her of the holo pictures of Earth her parents showed her. The other part of Mar Sara seemed… shadowed somehow.  
“Don?” she asked her scientist, “that,” she pointed her finger on the screen, “is this sign of that alien infestation reports spoke about?”

  
Don, the man in question, shifted his glasses on his nose and jumped to explaining what was in science reports he had been reading trough last few days. Obviously, every planet which started to look like that was quickly attacked by so far unknown but highly technologically advanced aliens. Also, the “shadowing” was sign of infestation which very quickly started to affect crops, the animals and people became diseased. Also, the ground got that squishy and slimy feel to it.

  
As Don finished his report, her adjutant broke the short silence. “Incoming transmission, Commander, from _Norad II_. Looks like the higher ups noticed our arrival.”

  
“Patch it through,” nodded Sira, leaning on the backrest of his seat. On the small screen in front of his panel appeared face of man in his fifties. She opened her mouth to introduce herself when the man interrupted her. “You are Commander Sira Filars, I take it?”

  
“That would be me, sir,” replied Sira, forcing her irritation down. She may be half his age but that still didn’t mean he can treat her like misbehaving five year old! Her men thought the same, according to the annoyed murmur around her.

  
“I have expected you to be a bit older,” continued the man. “I’m General Edmund Duke. You and your team were chosen due to your exceptionally good record. I hope you will shine on Mar Sara.”

  
“I hope so, sir.”

  
“Good. You should be receiving the coordinates for your landing. Good hunt, Commander. Duke out.”

  
The screen blacked out again. All of them fell silent for a moment. And then Tee said dryly: “Had to hurt like hell to sit with that stick in his ass.”

  
All of them broke in laughter. No matter what will pass, she thought as she messaged her other ship about the transmission, they will make it and excel in anything they do. Just like always.


	2. First Contact

**2\. First Contact**

  


As usual, Jack landed their ship, _Amaziga_ , gracefully. All of them had been dressed in uniforms – none of them wanted to be talked down again by that man, Edmund Duke.  
It had been evening, when they stepped outside the ship. Almost immediately was Sira ambushed by yeoman, carrying a bunch of reports she was handing to her, while commenting on the content of each file she handed her. Sira accepted each file, take a short look at it and handed it to Max. Briefly, she wondered whether the woman needed to breathe at all, at the speed she was talking.

  
“Good evening, Magistrate. I’m Yeoman Davis. I’ll fill you in on what has been happening in this system. As you were already notified, Confederate traffic has increases within the system due to recent Protoss destruction of Chau Mara…”

  
So, one of these aliens were called Protoss, Sira thought as she walked next to the Yeoman to her new Command Centre. The rest of her group went with her for the initial debriefing. Once again, it was General Duke who met with them via transmission – but this time, he seemed a tiny bit more respectful.

  
“Greetings, Magistrate.”

  
He continued about the nearest plans Confederacy had for Mar Sara. So – train those who do not know handle of the knife from pointy end, get some makeshift barracks. Then she will relocate the core colonist to the surrounding wastelands. With that, Duke ended the message. Yeoman continued about the logistics of the whole work – she already contacted local Marshal, James Raynor, who agreed to meet with the new Magistrate and help her to escort the colonists to the new wasteland site.

  
The personnel of the Command Centre seemed rather surprised when she informed she will look into the relocation herself. According to some of the murmured remarks she heard, getting your hands dirty was just sign of you being fringe world yokel to some of these men. Before she could say anything, Max already stepped in and gave them chewing of their life.  
She quickly gave orders. N, G and T will train the colonists; Don will take one of the Scientist Ships and will make a quick scanning of the area they were supposed to relocate the civilians, Trent and Max will go with her and small unit of marines to meet this Marshall.

  
The unit itself consisted mostly of young men – and most of them were a little too much trigger-happy for Sira’s liking. As they were moving through the rocky area, the boys almost managed to kill themselves, once some unknown voice spoke out of nowhere:

  
“Howdy, boys.”

  
“Stand down!” barked Sira, as she saw fingers of one of the marines a bit too close towards the trigger of his gun. He stayed his finger, shooting her an annoyed glare. Obviously, he hoped to use the gun at least once before they left the planet and she just had to stop him. Oh, right.

  
She turned towards the speaker. Before her stood a man in his thirties, dressed in mix of marine uniform and casual clothing, with dark hair and neatly trimmed beard, radiating amusement at her scrutiny. He was leaning on a Vulture bike, although this one seemed to be a bit more customized than she was used to seeing.

  
Lifting the visor of her helmet, she extended her hand. “Sira Filars. I take it you are Marshall James Raynor I’ve been told about.”

  
He took her hand and grinned. “Yeah, that would be me. But hey – you need to tell your Yeoman to be a bit more specific – she never mentioned that there were such pretty women in Confederation military. I actually thought that you were a man!”

  
Max chuckled behind her. Throwing him a dirty glare over her shoulder, she said: “I think that most of the men here were thinking something along that line. But obviously, this place needs someone to wear the pants properly – so they sent a woman here.” At that, Raynor actually ogled the said pants appreciatively. She just rolled her eyes. “If you are finished with staring at my ass, would you be so kind and lead us to the new site we are supposed to relocate the colonists, mister Raynor?”

  
He just gave her another grin, a “yes, ma’am” and got his bike started. The journey looked like to be rather boring, if they weren’t ambushed by a group of the aliens. These looked like some sort of… bugs together with slugs, and were somehow purple in colour. There had been several minor injuries after the scuffle, which Trent took quick care of, as Sira commed Don.

  
“Filars speaking. Don? Lock on our coordinates – we’ve got something what will definitely be of interest to you.”

  
“Locking in, Commander. I and Jack will be there in few mins. Vega out.”

  
Rest of the way was uneventful, just setting some basic structures for the colonists who were about to arrive soon to the intended site, led by Raynor, who drove his vulture to guide them there. Their work has been finished soon. There had been some complaining about how unfitting it was for the soldiers to build these things – it was quickly shut up when Max and Sira appeared, carrying a beam together.

  
She flashed the suddenly quiet men a grin. “C’mon, guys – we do not want the civilians to think the army is full of incapable sycophants, do we?”

  
It had the desired effect – when the colonists arrived, the buildings were standing and the marines were preparing to leave. Raynor whistled at the sight.

  
“Wow. How did you manage to get all of this standing in that short time?”

  
She gave him a contented smile. “Believe me, power of man’s ego is formidable force, if you know to handle it, Marshall. Call us, once the colonists are settled in.”

  
As he nodded, she turned to leave. The way back was uneventful. Sira found herself strangely thoughtful, gazing into nothing. She almost jumped out of her skin, when Max appeared next to her and clapped his hand on her shoulder.

  
“So what do you think about this Marshall Raynor, Sira?” he asked with a grin. She felt herself blush under his gaze. After the years of serving together he knew her too much for her comfort sometimes, just as she knew him.

  
She replied: “He is very capable at keeping the local youngsters in line, if that is what you are asking about. His record is less than exemplary – but obviously, it helped him to get respected here.” She was sure that this was exactly what Max knew she will say. But saying that James Raynor is an attractive man wouldn’t solve anything either. He would just tease her about that mercilessly – not in front of the men, of course – but even that would be enough. This way, he had only indirect proofs.

  
Few hours later, when she was finishing stack of reports, her terminal chirped. “Commander,” said her Yeoman, appearing on the screen, “Marshall Raynor reporting. Connecting the call to your terminal.”

  
Raynor’s face appeared on the screen where her Yeoman’s face had been just moments before, grinning widely. “Hey there, ma’am,” he said.

  
Sira felt her lips widening in answering smile.  “Hey yourself, Marshall. I trust all is well with the colonists?”

  
Raynor nodded. “Got yer refugees tucked in nice and tight. Provided you can sidestep any more surprises from our Confederate friends,” he grimaced when saying that, “and we can keep them away from those critters, they should have an easy time…”

  
On another screen appeared alarmed face of her Yeoman. “Priority alert, Commander! Backwater station under attack! Distress beacon activated at 0658. Alerting Confederate headquarters at Tarsonis… Incoming transmission!”

  
Yet another screen blinked to life. Admiral Duke’s face appeared on it. He looked… annoyed, most of everything else. He didn’t bother with anything and went directly to the point of his call. “We’ve received the distress call from Backwater, and we will take care of it. You just sit tight. If there’s anything we think you need to know, you’ll be notified of that. Duke out.”

  
‘ _Sheesh. Never let it be said that nothing happens on the fringe world,’_ thought Sira as Raynor ranted about idiotic Confederate generals. It wasn’t like she didn’t agree with him – but as a Confederate commander she needed to be less vocal about that. Heck, they had a station under attack and were ordered to do nothing!

  
Raynor’s voice caught her attention again. “Look,” he said, waiting for her to look at him again, “if we wait for the Confederate reinforcements, that station’s dust.” “He pointed at himself, “I’ll head there and do what I can,” and pointing at her, he added: “you send some militia and we’ll save those folks.” Seeing hesitation on her face, he finished softly: “Trust me, Sira.”

 

They stared at each other for several seconds, before Sira grimaced and punched the comm button on her desk. “T, report!”

 

Second later, T answered the call. “Corporal Tee reporting. What’s up, Commander?”

  
“You and the rest of the trio, plus squad of marines are to report to Vulture bay in five minutes. One of our stations had been attacked; Marshall Raynor and you are to save what can be saved, as we can’t afford to wait for Confederate reinforcements. Take the Vultures to be there as quick as possible. Contact Marshall as soon as you take off for coordinates. Understood?”

  
“Loud and clear, Commander. Tee out.”

  
Turning back to Raynor, she folded her hands. “You better return these guys in one piece, James,” she said, secretly savouring saying the name. “I have been serving with them for most of the time I had been in the army, and would hate to send letters to their families so soon after becoming their commander.”

  
Jim just nodded and ended the call.

  
The hours were ticking away, as she watched through the video feed what was happening. Meeting with James. driving closer t the site of attacked station. T was running a commentary, as well as allowing the audio to take what the others were saying. She heard how grateful two workers sounded when they got them from bunker surrounded by the aliens; saw the mad light in the eyes of firebats as they got from bunker of their own, asking them if they need a light, felt the same shock as the men, when she saw what the aliens did to the Command Centre of the Backwater station. The whole building seemed to be alive, shivering under the breeze, a pool of something slimmy surrounding it.

  
“Burn it!” shouted James, firing a grenade on the centre, the others quickly following him.  And the building burned to the ground, several more aliens running out of it only to be instantly killed. N was taking pictures of one of the creatures, while G was scanning it, both sending the data to Don for later analysis. The whole group; James, her men and the rescued guys were making their way back, almost back at the Command Centre, when the space above Mar Sara shimmered and _Norad II_ , with half of the Alpha Squadron appeared seemingly from nowhere. Sira had a sick suspicion that they just hanged on the orbit long enough to see them taking action and then make themselves seen.

  
“Marshall Raynor, by destroying a vital Confederate installation…” Duke obviously was getting a kick of this, Sira was sure of it, hearing the glee in his voice. James was breaking the colonial law by destroying an already destroyed building? What the…?!

  
James was obviously of the same opinion, not minding his manners when addressing the general. “Are you outta your mind?! If we haven’t burned that damn factory, the whole colony could be overrun!” He paused and Sira had braced for something what definitely will sour his image in General’s eyes even more. “Maybe if you hadn’t taken your sweet time in getting here – “

  
Duke didn’t let him finish, his demeanour suddenly cold. “I asked you nice the first time, boy. Now throw down them weapons!”

  
Together with that, ghosts started appearing all around them, weapons trained on the marines. Raynor stopped his Vulture and handed his weapons to the ghost who stood closest, just like the rest of them. Sira heard T chuckling at James’ remark to Duke. “Guess you wouldn’t be a Confederate if you weren’t a complete pain in the ass.”

  
But that was only start of the problems. She sent formal complaint about her disagreement with arresting Marshall Raynor and how her men were treated. She was strictly polite – but also very vocal in her message. She knew the regulations and how destroying Confederate buildings was against them – but this had been desperate situation demanding a desperate measure.

  
She knew it was all in vain, when her Yeoman informed her two days later of incoming transmission. When she opened it, it’s General Duke’s face scowling at her from the screen. Part of her is quite happy that the message is recorded because the scowl on Duke’s face would easily win scowling competition.

  
As always, he got straight to the point. “I got your message, Magistrate, and frankly, I don’t care what you have to say about Confederate regulations.” He snorted. “You fringe world yokels are all the same, don’t know where your loyalties lie. Duke out.”

  
She had been happily kicking something around, murmuring something about arrogant idiots when her comm chirped again. It’s the report she requested – and as soon as she opened the document, all hell breaks through. Every station on Mar Sara suddenly reports sightings of the aliens – who obviously got a name now, Zerg, three of them only managed to set the distress call off before the feeds are full of scenes of destruction, only to end abruptly, as the stations are destroyed.

  
There seemed little can be done now; Duke took most of the armed forces with him, when he arrested James and trio with squad. They only had about one third of usual numbers of soldiers. Surely number of colonists knew how to handle weapons – but still there had been women and children to protect. And they did not have any option of evacuating them from Mar Sara, since they were also seriously lacking dropships. The whole situation sucked. Seriously sucked.

  
The only thing Sira could do was order everyone and everything in one place, so their options at defence would be better. The skies of Mar Sara were full of flying buildings; it made Sira think of ancient computer games, which had flying cities as part of their lore. She commanded her Yeoman to contact the Confederates and ask for help – and if she won’t be able to contact the Confederation itself, than anyone else who would be willing to help. She had been out, helping to organize where each building should land and what should everyone do to make themselves useful, when she was called to her Command Centre for report. Rest of her Senior crew – Trent, Don, Jack and Max – were already waiting for her at debriefing room, together with Yeoman Davis, who just greeted her and proceeds to report.

  
So obviously, the Confederates arrested most of the local military forces, only to play ‘dead bug’ now, completely refusing to take any kind of action against the Zerg. From all the stations on Mar Sara, apart from those three they knew were destroyed, they managed to evacuate the rest to one place. And last but not least – the only source of military relief Davis managed to locate, had been the extremist faction known as The Sons of Korhal.  
Trent whistled, when he heard that. “Not to look gifted horse in the mouth – but calling terrorists for help?”

  
Jack just snorted. “It’s up to you, Sira,” he said, using her name for once. He always insisted on calling her by the rank – so when he wanted to make his point clearer, he called her by name. Don nodded his agreement, adding only “we are with you.”

  
Sira nodded her thanks, looking at Max and Trent. “What about you, guys?” Trent shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter who will help us, Commander. I will heal people nonetheless.” Max offered her only a small smile and “got your six, ma’am” to accompany it.

  
Looking at Davis, she signalled her to establish com-link with liaison of The Sons of Korhal. A new face appeared on the screen between them; a man with grey in his hair and beard and deep, intense eyes. His eyes flew over the faces of people in front of him, stopping at Sira. He nodded his greetings. “Good day, Magistrate. I’m Arcturus Mengsk, and I represent The Sons of Korhal.”

  
Ah, another rather infamous name then. Her surprise had to flash over her face, because Mengsk smiled lightly. “I have no doubts that you are aware of the propaganda Confederation continues to spread about my group. Your reputation, however, suggests that you’ll see past it.” Next to her, Jack chuckled, earning himself a quick glare, while Acturus continued. Cutting it short, he offered help of his group in evacuation of the colony. The catch had been that since The Sons of Korhal were operating outside the Confederation law, accepting their help would brand her as an outlaw, too.

  
“Look, mister Mengsk,” started Sira in her command voice, “while I very much appreciate your offer, which couldn’t come at better time, I need to think about my men, too. While I understand that my rank of Magistrate will be revoked as soon as the Confederation gets a whiff of this alliance, I would hate to ruin the careers of my men, too. Once evacuated, will they be free to choose if they wish to remain with your group or if they wish to leave?”

  
Judging by the new appreciative light in his eyes, Mengsk was clearly impressed by this stand. Directness was sometimes the best route, it seemed. “They will be free to choose, ma’am. You have my word on that.”

  
“Then you have a deal,” nodded Sira curtly. “How long before you can arrive to Mar Sara?”

  
“It will take three days, I’m afraid. Since quite a big part of Confederation fleet had been present, we were unable to stay close.”

  
“So we need to survive for at least three days, otherwise there won’t be anyone left for saving,” muttered Max to her right.

  
“Three days then. By the way, mister Mengsk, should you happen to run into any of my men who had been arrested previously, please, bring them, too. Without them, I have too few people to command around.”

  
“Will do,” said Mengsk, this time with amused smile. Something was strange about that smile, but Sira’s mind had already been in building defences.

  
“See you in three days. Filars out.”

  
To the darkened room, she added. “If there will be anything to save, still.”

  
The next two days had been filled by anxious trying for fortifying themselves. Women and children had been moved to the very core of their last stand, everyone able to hold a weapon got one. Bunch of SVCs had been put up to gathering as many mineral and gas resources as possible, while others had been repairing every vulture car or bunker they managed to build. All of them had been running on what energy they have left, when Sira called a break for few hours, sending patrols to keep an eye on the Zerg, so they won’t be caught with their pants down.

  
On beginning of third day, there had been first sightings of bigger groups of Zerg. The outer bunkers reported that the Zerg kept on testing their defences, attacking in small groups of ‘zerglings’. Patrols reported that while zerglings didn’t take much, their main strength had been the numbers they attacked in. After them, attack of some stronger creatures, reports called them ‘hydralisks’ had come. These were much stronger, using some kind of acid as the means of their attack. After one of their attacks, the few medics Trent had with him had their hands full with treating acid burns. Letting the beasts come closer had obviously been mistake – but what to do when your firing range is not as good as you need?

  
One of the colonists came with an idea. What about building a wall between the lines of bunkers? They had quite a number of rackets – defenders stationed on the wall could easily fire them into the hydralisks before they got too close, not to mention that it could also hinder Zerg progress. Additional idea by one of the vulture riders was that during the breaks between waves of attacks the vultures could place several lines of mines before the bunkers, setting them off once the stronger Zerg came over them.

  
When sixth wave of Zerg had been finally taken care of, Sira ordered a scanner sweep over the location of Zerg hive. When she saw the results, she had to fight the feelings of panic down. There had been hundreds, no, thousands of Zerg lurking under the ground. How were they supposed to hold this dark horde with the few forces they had? That was how Max found her after Davis carefully suggested that he may want to check on Commander.

  
Max entered her quarters without knocking. Sira had been sitting in front of her terminal, downloading every single byte of data into several discs, placing them in folder. Placing one last disc into the folder, she turned to face him fully. She had been pale, with dark circles around her eyes, her shoulders slumping. He always knew she had been young, possibly younger than all her men, but it never used to be so apparent until some crisis came over.  
“Sira?” he asked tentatively. “Are you okay?”

  
She answered with a question of her own: “Have you seen the results of latest scanner sweep, Max?” Turning around, she pointed at map of Mar Sara. “This,” some green dots appeared on the map, “are we and our base. And these are the Zerg.”

  
He understood why she seemed so down now. The few hundreds of soldiers and colonists seemed like a spit in the ocean. “How long before the promised dropships are supposed to appear?” he asked hoarsely.

  
“Computer, ETA for dropships.”

  
“The ETA is twelve hours, three minutes and fifty second.”

  
“Max,” she said quietly, “how am I supposed to keep us alive for another twelve hours against that?”

  
Some guys back at Tarsonis used to say that females shouldn’t be allowed in the army, that they are weak and useless in crisis. She had been the first one to enter command training, constantly being mocked for daring to do something no woman was ever able to do. But she showed them. In current crisis, Sira handled herself very admirably so far, keeping the morale high, helping whenever she could , listening to any advice someone more experienced could offer, weighing their options carefully. She deserved the promotion to Commander more than anyone else he knew – but right now, it almost seemed her spirit was broken. Something needed to be done, and quickly, otherwise she would break under the strain – and right now, that would be the biggest disaster which could happen.

  
“Hey,” he said quietly, kneeling in front of her. “None of that, sweetie.” After a moment of hesitation he took her hands into his; she had very pretty hands, he noted, he was quite sure that if she didn’t take the Command track, she would be an exceptional medic. Caressing her knuckles gently with his thumbs, he told her: “If anyone can pull this through, Sira, it’s you. These men are mostly  those you haven’t commanded for long – but when you put your career at stake just so they could be saved, it got you at least some grudging respect from them. We are willing to go to the hells themselves with you and the colonists will fight like wolves pushed in the corner. We won’t fail you now.”

  
She stared at him wordlessly for moment which stretched as eternity, before her mouth widened in radiant grin. “Is that men for _‘grow some balls, woman’_?”

  
Max returned the grin, rising to his feet and pulling her with him. “That’s the girl I’ve been serving with. But now we need to buckle up. Do you need help with your armour?”

  
“Nope, I managed to get it customized so I will finally be able to put it on without help. Meet you in ten minutes. Computer,” she turned towards the screen once again, “notify Yeoman Davis and the rest of _Amaziga_ crew that the meeting is in ten minutes in room twelve.”

  
“Understood, Commander,” chimed computer.

  
Sira never has been one for grand speeches. If she had to deliver one, she would – usually deathly afraid that she will say something out of turn. So she never says much; just gets straight to the point and that’s it. This time it was no different – she just quickly explained how long they will have to wait for Sons of Korhal dropships, what should be done before the Zerg launch another attack, how to proceed during the attack and the following evacuation.  
Soon after they got to their positions, Zerg launched another attack; Sira thought it was mostly as if the Zerg, the intelligence behind the countless bodies was testing defences of the humans. _‘Damit,’_ she thought, _‘if only we had some time to get some siege tanks here before the Zerg showed in such numbers…’_

  
Three hours before the dropships should arrive; Zerg launched the biggest attack of all, obviously intending to break through their line of defence once and for all. Countless waves of zergling, followed by hydralisks. Every single vulture they had was busy carrying wounded to first aid station, only to return those who were still able to fight back to the line of bunkers. And then, the hydralisk finally managed to burn their way through and that was when the fight for their lives started to get really, really serious, as more hydralisk and zergling rushed through the breach.

  
“Woman and children – to the barracks and the command centres, prepare for launching. Don, do you copy?” yelled Sira into her commlink.

  
First, her only answer had been some scratching noises, before Don’s voice finally broke through: “Copy that, …ander. The beasties … jammed the signals… launching…”

  
The buildings launched gracefully in the air, rising upwards towards the space. Sira always liked to watch the flying buildings; so graceful and at the same time, slow and awkward. But since bunch of hydralisk was approaching rapidly, she had to cut her daydreaming short and focus on sending as many of there… creatures... to hell as possible.  She almost got herself hit by the hydralisk acid in the face. Luckily, she managed to protect her face with her hands, burning them gravely enough in the process  that from the next few hours she could remember only terrible pain and yelling at her men to either fall-back or to attack. When the Sons of Korhal reinforcements finally appeared, they were fighting for the very last line of defence, as the Zerg overrun the entire planet.


	3. Change of Loyalties

Sira had been resting in her cabin on _Amaziga_. Trent managed to regenerate most of the skin on her hands – and while doing so, he scowled at her the whole time, grumbling something about idiotic commanders – which was something Sira pretended not to hear – and jabbed her with several injections countering all kinds of possible infections and poisoning from the acid and zergling’s bites. That was Trent. One of the best medics in the Confederate army and she managed to snatch him into her crew. The more he nagged, the better she knew everything will be okay eventually.

Arcturus Mengsk, the guy from the Sons of Korhal, called a meeting – but since she had been half-delirious at the time, she wasn’t completely sure what it was about, something about them getting into the Confederacy base, trying to steal plans for some weapons. It wasn’t as if she really cared about what happens to any of the Confederacy stuff left on the planet – after all, after this, she would consider herself lucky if she was only discharged from the army and not dishonourably discharged and court-marshalled. Right now, it was after the meeting and Trent sent her – not allowing any arguments – to bed. Which she promptly did, not even bothering with changing or even taking off her boots.

“Sira,” someone said. “Sira, c’mon, lass, wake up…”

She slowly came to consciousness, her vision blurry for a moment, before it cleared. Max was kneeling by her bunk, gently shaking her shoulder to wake her up. “What’s up, Max?” she asked sleepily.

He gave her a grin. “I’ve got a surprise for ya. Come,” he urged her, helping her to sit up before she rose to her feet. All the anaesthetics in her blood flow, together with the exhaustion were not making her run around like a hyperactive ferret; that much she knew for sure.

But what she saw in the corridor before her cabin definitely woke her up like a caffeine shot would. The men, previously taken away from her by Duke, were standing there, grinning widely and chuckling at the surprised reaction of their still rather sleepy looking Commander.

“You’re back!” she yelled, throwing herself at the nearest of her marines, T. All of them surrounded her, laughing happily, making lots of noise as they were passing their commander from arms to arms, patting her back awkwardly or just returning her embrace, all of them pretending not to see the tears in her eyes.

“Will I get a hug, too?” asked a pouty voice. Sira swirled around. Jim Raynor had been leaning on the wall, giving her the patented puppy-eyes look all men seemed to have mastered. Well, if men mastered the puppy-eyes look; women mastered the strict and disapproving teacher look. Especially if those women were in the army. Pursing her lips, she narrowed her eyes at Jim who immediately almost stood at attention.

“In the first place, James Raynor, it’s your fault that my men were taken in – how did the general call it? – protective custody,” Sira said, her marines grinning openly at the squirming Marshall. Not that she didn’t enjoy that, too. It was actually quite nice to see someone else squirm. She stared at him for some more time before breaking in wide smile, hugging him just as tight as her men. “Well, you’ve got your hug – but don’t get used to it, you insufferable pain in neck!

Alright guys,” she turned back to her men, “I’ve got lot to talk to you about – and I think that you won’t like half of the stuff any more than I do.” She punched the comm carefully. “Trent, Jack, Don – you got five minutes to set Amaziga on automatic pilot and come with the rest of the crew to the mess hall. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

“Roger that, ma’am,” sounded in reply, while they were moving to the mess.

Jim stayed where he was, not really part of Amaziga crew, watching them go. That was when Sira called over her shoulder: “Stop standing there like idiot, James, and move your ass. It’s of your concern, too.” He just grinned.

The crew assembled in record time. She looked them over, counted who was missing and started the meeting. “So, the thing is this: right now, we have several options opened to us. First – we can say fuck off to Confederacy and join forces with the Sons of Korhal. Problem is – we piss the Confederacy off and then, I don’t doubt that there will be more fighting between these two forces soon. Second – we can say fuck off to Sons of Korhal and return to Confederacy but I doubt that will make mister Mengsk very happy, not to mention that the admiralty won’t be pleased nonetheless. And last but not least, we can say fuck off to both and hope we will manage to survive on our own.”

There had been silence for a moment before someone spoke. “And what do you think would be the best course, Commander?”

Sira just gave the asker a humourless smile. “I was afraid you’ll ask that.”

The whole meeting took several hours. Many things needed to be discussed, approached from all sides, with Max playing the devil’s advocate most of the time. In the end, the decision had been made.

The _Amaziga_ crew will join forces with Sons of Korhal.

**-o.O.o-**

“Tell me, Max,” murmured Sira, “that I did the right thing.”

They were walking towards their quarters; Sira as the Commander had her own, the rest of the crew usually shared – one room, two or three people, depending on how they decided. She had been almost asleep on her feet again, Max carefully guiding her so she wouldn’t collide with anything.

“The best possible option, Commander,” he said, opening the door for her. Usually, she would roll her eyes and quip about him being such a gentleman, but in her exhaustion she was glad to be able to walk – and he had to confess he quite missed it. Sitting Sira on her bunk, he pulled her boots off, allowing her to lie down.

He thought she was already asleep, when her voice sounded. “Max?”

He turned around. “Yes, Commander?”

For a moment, there had been silence. “Just wanted to say that you are the best adjutant a girl can ask for.”

He chuckled. “And don’t you forget that, ma’am! Good night,” he added, his voice quiet. When she responded with quiet ‘night, Max’, he closed the door behind him.

It had been a long day, he though as he walked to his room (which was not just his, since he shared it with Trent and now with that Raynor guy), yawning widely. And if everything will go according to the plan drafted by Mengsk, they could expect more of these to come. But right now, they will sleep, and whatever happens, can as well happen when they are at least a bit rested.

**-o.O.o-**

“So, mister Mengsk, what do you expect from us now?” asked Sira during video conference several days later. They had been allowed some rest period, almost all of them sleeping through all that time. Before the briefing, James told them more about that small mission about getting to the Confederacy station and stealing some data discs there. So, obviously the Confederacy had known about the Zerg already, managed to at least capture some of them and in all probability also test them on various weapons. It really pissed her off, that her seniors knew about the Zerg and yet sent her there. Probably to die; to fail and show that women weren’t worth to be in Command after all.

“We are now aiming towards Antiga Prime, Commander,” he answered. “My second-in-command, Lieutenant Kerrigan reported the colonists there already heard what happened to Mar Sara and are ready to rebel against the Confederacy.”

Another screen blinked to life. A face of a woman, of darker skin and hair, appeared. “That is true. Sadly, General Duke caught wind of that and sent his Alpha Squadron to stop that from happening.”

“If it’s the Alpha Squadron, it definitely won’t be easy,” remarked Max. “I remember some of the drills they forced us through – these guys are nearly fanatical in their loyalty to that old bastard.”

“Well,” reacted Kerrigan, “from what I have heard from the officers, it’s not completely like that with this part of Squadron. Looks like Duke had been saving his best boys to different area.”

“And this is when you come in,” interrupted Arcturus. “Sarah can deal with the still-loyal officers and then you together will deal with the rest.”

“What kind of weaponry is at our disposal?” asked Raynor. Kerrigan turned towards the voice. “Right now there are some vultures and firearms. But the rebels should be able to give us more – some Wraiths, and dropships, since the main body of Alpha squadron is on another continent than the rebel’s stations.”

“Sounds good to me,” responded Raynor. “I would take the vultures myself. You, Commander?”

“Some of my men can fly quite well with the dropships, and some were also quite decent pilots of Wraiths, right, Max?” said Sira, turning to Max. He nodded. “Give or take, sir, we can build one flight of Wraiths from our military sources – computer, look up every colonist of Mar Sara who is currently on _Amaziga_ who has flight training in either military or private sector.”

“Working, commander…”

During the short pause with computer searching for people fulfilling the parameters, Sira thought about the progress since Mar Sara. According to the reports they managed to catch in subspace, the while _Amaziga_ unit had been first listed as KIA, only to have that status changed to AWOL, once the brass learnt that they escaped the planet.

It was very strange feeling, to be a deserter.

“Done, Commander,” chimed the computer, showing of the results. Sira quickly scrolled through them. “I’m afraid that so far we may be able to get only two flights of Wraiths tops – but should it come to shuttles, we have fifteen pilots ready to fly. Sir,” she turned to Arcturus, “I would take the transport shuttles, as I do not have the experiences needed for commanding an air fight.”

There had been snort from the computer screen as reply. “Cool, from all the former Confederacy officers around this sector we get the one who doesn’t know how to fight. Great.”

Sira felt just like when she had been dressed down in front of all other recruits before; the same sneer, the same disdain in the voice of the instructor… She opened her mouth to say something what would border on insubordination, were they in regular army, when Max jumped to her defence: “With all due respect, ma’am, Commander Filars can fight quite well, and…”

“Adjutant,” Sira interrupted him; Max stopping but obviously still steaming furiously. Sira turned back to the screen. “As I said, I lack the training and experience for commanding an air fight – if that is a problem, I believe Mr Mengsk could station us elsewhere?” she finished, looking at Arcturus.

 “That will not be necessary,” said Arcturus sharply. “You will take care of the transport shuttles, James here will make sure the Vultures are in good shape and Sarah will scout the area and meet with the reconnaissance led by James. Dismissed.”

Sira and Max saluted and left with their backs almost painfully straight, James following them quickly. Arcturus turned back to still waiting Kerrigan. “Sarah, was it really necessary to needle her like that?”

Kerrigan grimaced. “I’m sorry, Arcturus. You know how I react towards the Confederacy types.”

“Then you need to put that aside!” snapped Arcturus. “Filars just rather abruptly changed the way how her life is going to be, and you won’t make her or her men any more useful if you continue to needle her needlessly!”

Kerrigan had been quiet for a moment, almost rebelliously so. “I’m sorry, Arcturus,” she repeated. Mengsk nodded and closed the connection.

The day was only at its beginning and he already had been sporting a killer headache.

 

**o.O.o**

Meanwhile, Max had been steaming with fury. “How dared she…!”

Sira laid a calming hand on his elbow. “Calm down, Max. She was just needling us for a reaction – she’s not the first to try that and won’t be the last, remember?”

Max just growled something incomprehensible before he burst angrily. “It’s just not right, Commander.”

“I know,” Sira nodded. She looked to the side where Raynor had been leaning against the wall, chewing on his lower lip thoughtfully. “I got to call the men to debriefing. See you there in ten.” She quickly disappeared into her cabin, door closing behind her.

“But that Kerrigan was really hot, wasn’t she?” asked Raynor cheerfully. Max threw him a glare. “Yeah, right until she opened her mouth,” he growled before he stormed towards the crew quarters.

 

**o.O.o**

When Sarah met the men promised by Arcturus, she was almost overwhelmed by thoughts of distrust, outrage and… _‘She has amazing ass!’_

“You pig!” she exclaimed, making the leading Vulture driver, Raynor, if she remembered correctly, ask rather stupidly: “What? I didn’t say anything to you yet!”

The emotion and thoughts in the air took different direction then – towards distrust and fear. She hated fear; cold and slimy, when it came to how the emotion felt to her.

They were interrupted by female voice sounding from the com. “Omega to Alfa, do you copy?”

“Loud and clear,” slapped Raynor the com. “We got the lady here. Just a short time and Omega glory can call the cavalry!”

Sarah was enveloped in feelings of amusement at that, most of the men around her chuckling at the response of the female voice. Time to move on, she told them, telling them how to proceed, as she re-activated the stealth again.

“I hate these towers,” she called them later, “not only they can shoot you down from the sky; they can also see me, even if I’m hiding.”

“Got that, ma’am,” sounded response from one of the marines. In very short time the tower had been pile of smoking ruins, and they were speeding towards the Command Station of the rebels.

Taking care of the still-loyal-to-Duke officers had been a piece of cake compared to what was waiting for them now.


	4. May long live the Revolution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written as a part of this years NaNoWriMo, since I got stuck on the novel I wanted to write. Instead, I got bunch of unrelated works in progress O_o

 

Fighting towards the centre of Confederation forces on this continent was not as difficult as they expected; only problems were caused by exceptionally competent commanding officer, who was starting to order increasingly successful counter-attacks, slowing their progress more and more.

“Damn, that man must be tactical genius or something!” growled Raynor into com, when he was asking about report how the situation looks from the air.

“That would actually be quite true,” responded Sira, her fingers moving over the flying console, leading the shuttle into evasive manoeuvre. “Lieutenant Commander Askaran had been teaching tactical classes at the Academy – and from what he’s showing here, that old bastard got even better than he used to be. Crap!” she yelled, as she only barely dodged a rocket aimed at her shuttle.

“And she tells us now,” sneered Kerrigan, shooting an enemy marine who wasn’t careful enough and walked into her shooting range.

“Not Commander’s fault,” sounded new voice, which Raynor identified as Don, the crazy scientist. “Lack of information of enemy units on Antiga Prime. Last we heard, Askaran still at Academy. Requesting better information next time. Vega out.”

Max heard the exchange and just grinned under his helmet. That woman probably could read it in his head, but he didn’t care about it at the moment. “Haha. Filars – Kerrigan, 1:0.”

In the end, not even brilliant strategy saved Lieutenant Commander Askaran, as Kerrigan managed to sneak into the command centre and shoot him in the head. Confederation marines still put up a fight, but without a single mind to organise the counter-attacks, they were soon overwhelmed.

Base of operation on Antiga Prime was taken.

**-o.O.o-**

“Rebels got more Wraith pilots with experience, which is good. Also, there is number of marines, firebats or medics ready, exact numbers are…”

Sira was recounting the progress into a report for Mengsk when Raynor and Kerrigan entered the room she was in. When she noticed their presence, she quickly finished the report, ending it with a phrase ’and dexterous brown fox jumped over sleeping cocker spaniel.’

Tapping in the last security commands, she rose from her place to face the newcomers. “Marshall, ma’am,” she nodded to them, standing at attention; the stance naturally coming to her after the years of military drill. She was perfectly aware of the rolling eyes it got her every time she did that – but she found comfort in the familiar discipline.

“I was about to call you, once I finished the report,” she stated, looking back into her reports. “Given the current speed of repairs, re-fitting and restocking, we should be ready to throw the attack on the other continent tomorrow morning, approximately at eleven…”

Kerrigan was only half-listening to what Filars said; instead, she was focusing on what she thought. ‘Need more pilots… switch the face -1/+1 card, the totals are nine/ten… blast it… Askaran… switch the face -2/+2, the totals are eight/ten…’ It didn’t make much sense to her.

“… all in all, we are quite prepared to defend this place, even if we may not be able to launch attack ourselves,” said Sira, finishing the report. Kerrigan and Raynor both nodded.

“Hey, Commander,” asked Raynor abruptly, “what was that with the brown fox?”

“Oh.” Sira felt her cheeks warming up. “Vega told me that although we can encrypt the reports, it definitely would give the enemy hard time, if I placed some nonsensical sayings into the reports. The brown fox jumping over sleeping cocker spaniel was one of them.”

“Some of the others were ‘Hände hoch” or “Schweinebraten mit Knödeln und Sauerkraut,” sounded new voice. Max entered the room, holding a tray with several bowls on it. “Also, I brought you something to eat, Commander, the guys in the mess were bitching about you not eating enough again.”

Sarah could read amusement in Filars’ mind, as well as surprise. “That’s thoughtful of you, Adjutant,” she said. “Ma’am, Marshall, I believe it would be prudent for the two of you join the rest of the men in the mess – some of them have yet to meet you.”

That was true. Not to mention that the idea of food seemed really tempting now, even if Kerrigan was a bit wary of the emotions she might feel from the marines.

Yes, being nasty to Commander really was something the soldiers do not forgive.

**-o.O.o-**

“Alfa to Omega, you ready to call the cavalry?”

Raynor sat on his Vulture, preparing to get into a transport shuttle and fly over the ocean on Antiga Prime. The Wraiths they had were busy destroying at least some of the gun turrets the enemy had on their side of the water, so the shuttles would be able to approach without endangering the people they were transporting.

“Cavalry, get ready!”

“Everyone, hold on tight – it’s highly likely we will have to manoeuvre rather crazily,” sounded voice of the Commander from the speakers in shuttle. Kerrigan closed her eyes and forced her breaths to come out at a slower rate. ‘Focus Sarah,’ she admonished herself. ‘It’s not like the pilot will intentionally get hit by a missile and kill everyone on board…’

After some time they heard another announcement: “Everyone get ready to drop out!” And after two more minutes, when all of them unstrapped from the seatbelts. “Landing in three… two… one!”

The shuttle hit the ground, doors opening almost simultaneously, letting them out. There were burning ruins of what used to be duo of turret towers. In the ears of the landing party sounded Commander’s voice: “The first part of the plan is to destroy the factories about half kilometre south. Expected resistance – five bunkers with unknown numbers of marines. Once you get hold of them, we will transport you further into the continent. Alfa out.”

“You heard the lady,” commanded Kerrigan. “Let’s go!”

**-o.O.o-**

They proceeded with the plan well that day; the fighting was not as bad here as it was on the other continent. Obviously locals did not have anyone of Askaran’s strategic qualities – but they still had the numbers; every time they managed to hit a bunker, there certainly had been at least one worker who would try to repair the damage they inflicted.

“To all units – fall back and regroup, repeat, all units are to fall back and regroup!” sounded Filars’ voice in their commlinks.

“We need immediate evac, Commander!” answered another voice; this one was of some marine. “We got the Confederates upon us and they managed to close us in between rocks and unless we learn how to fly, they will have it as easy as shooting fish in a barrel!”

“Locking on your coordinates – try to hold them off as long as you can and prepare for a damn hasty boarding!”

Raynor later spoke with one marine from that unit; it was actually unit from the Antigan rebels. “She’s one crazy bitch,” he would say, “she got our asses from there, and when they got a Wraith firing on us, she pulled Crazy Ivan! Scared the crap outta me but man, it worked like charm!”

**-o.O.o-**

“The offensive is slowly starting to slow down, as the Confederates are getting more and more desperate.”

“That’s true,” nodded Max. “All units report casualties.”

Their offensive had been so far rather successful – but now it became apparent the Confederates are just trying to hold on for long enough to get Duke and his Alpha squadron here and show them a what for.

“The current tactics need change – any suggestions?”

**-o.O.o-**

The next plan was to throw absolutely everything into the battle – while the SCVs were collecting as many minerals and gas as they could (just like on Mar Sara), they were preparing to launch all their buildings into the air and move them to the other continent, so they wouldn’t have to transport everyone over the ocean in the shuttles.

Step No. 1: destroy everything the enemy has and what is able to shoot at flying crafts.

That showed to be easy and damn difficult at once. Once you landed on the ground, the gun turrets couldn’t fire at you anymore – but you got into firing range of bunkers ground units. Luckily, all the detectors the Confederates had were way too far away from the bunkers to really be of any use. Kerrigan had her hands full with assassinating the marines holed in them.

After three bunkers Sarah was exhausted. Thoughts of three units of men, dying by her hand, were biting on her consciousness, making her step unsure and sluggish. She went to report to the makeshift command centre they made when the world spun around her.

Before she could hit the ground, she felt someone catching her and then her visions filled with darkness.

**-o.O.o-**

When Sarah woke up, she was lying on bed in unfamiliar room. The only sounds beside the ones she made were quiet clicking of computer keyboards. Turning her head, she looked around.

Obviously, she was not on the planet – this looked like ship cabin, originally meant for one, now hosting two people, two women, in it. The other occupant, the former Confederacy Magistrate Filars, had been busily typing at her personal computer, pausing time to time to check something on various datapads surrounding her.

She must have made some noise, as the Commander looked up. “Oh, you’re awake.” Raising to her feet, she walked over to lying Ghost with a scanner in her hand. “Hm,” she said, looking at the results, “I’m no medic, but this thing says that as long as you get some proper meal in you, and rest some more, you should be as good as new.”

“Will work on the meal, but kind of doubting the rest part,” replied Sarah. She sat up, noting the stiffness in her muscles. “How long was I out?”

The Commander snapped to attention. “You had been unconscious for approximately twenty point five hours. We had been able to relocate you from the battlefield back to _Amaziga_. Currently, the fighting on Antiga Prime is finished, and Mr Mengsk had been only waiting for you to wake up before he relays our new orders.”

“Any ideas about what our new orders may be?” Sarah asked.

The other woman nodded. “I have more than just an idea,” she said, turning from Sarah to her computer. Typing several commands into the console, she got a projection up. It was a plan of the area on another planet, Sarah thought, since she couldn’t remember anything like that on Antiga Prime.

There had been one small green dot in the sea of purple.

“Our new orders,” spoke Sira into the silence, “will be to get the General Duke from this pickle of a situation he managed to get himself into.”


End file.
